Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 47 2020

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The facility would be built in Vietnam’s Quang discovery.
Ninh Province at an estimated cost of JPY200bn
($1.9bn). The power plant is slated to have a If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
capacity of 1,500 MW, and start-up is targeted the Middle East’s oil and gas sector then please click
for 2026. here for NewsBase’s MEOG Monitor .
Then, on November 21, General Electric
(GE) signed an MoU with Vietnam’s EVN North America: Canada’s net-zero push
Genco3 to develop the Long Son LNG-to-power It has been a busy news week for the Canadian
project in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. GE will be oil and gas industry. TC Energy announced that
contracted to install the gas turbine technology it had signed a deal paving the way for a poten-
and certain other equipment, according to US tial investment in Keystone XL, Imperial Oil
government officials on a visit to Hanoi. That unveiled spending and output plans and more
project is being planned to start up by 2025. details of the country’s path to net-zero green-
The MoUs come as various other projects house gas (GHG) emissions emerged.
are also advancing in Vietnam, where power TC Energy said on November 17 that it had
demand is rising and new capacity is urgently signed a definitive agreement with Natural Law
needed. Energy (NLE), a group that comprises several
First Nations. The deal allows NLE to invest up
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping to CAD1bn ($764mn) in the Keystone XL pro- The Canadian
the global LNG sector then please click here for ject – a cross-border pipeline that would carry
NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor. oil from Alberta’s oil sands to the US. TC Energy PM’s Liberal
said similar deals could be struck with indige-
Middle East stays busy nous groups along the pipeline’s route in both the Party has tabled
The Middle East oil and gas sector has remained US and Canada.
busy over the past week, with new contract The move comes as TC Energy prepares for a bill that would
awards, M&A interest and large discoveries all US President-elect Joe Biden to take office. There require the
announced. are fears that Biden could revoke the project’s
The biggest news came unsurprisingly from presidential permit, so the company will be keen government
Saudi Arabia, where state oil firm Saudi Aramco to demonstrate how Keystone XL aligns with
has launched a new contracting pool for brown- Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda. to set new
field oil and gas projects and plant upgrades. Separately, Imperial Oil said in its virtual
Aramco prequalified seven companies and one investor day presentation that it would raise decarbonisation
consortium to bid exclusively on the work on a capital expenditure and production in 2021 targets
long-term agreement (LTA) basis similar to the despite ongoing market volatility related to the
existing contracts offering automatic prequal- coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Imperial –
ification for offshore EPCI work. While new which is majority-owned by ExxonMobil and is
companies have entered Aramco’s ‘rig of trust’, one of Canada’s top four producers – is intending
Hyundai, Saipem and TehcnipFMC are all now to spend CAD1.2bn ($916mn) in 2021, which
represented in both pools. would mark a rise of 33% on 2020. The com-
Meanwhile in Iraq, two state-owned Chi- pany is targeting a production increase of 5% to
nese firms are reported to have shown an inter- 415,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).
est in acquiring ExxonMobil’s 34.7% stake in These updates have come against the back-
the supergiant West Qurna-1 oilfield, with the drop of Canada taking another step down the
US firm thought to have grown tired of issues path to decarbonisation. Canadian Prime Min-
with developing the asset and the small returns ister Justin Trudeau unveiled further details
on offer. Such a move would further emphasise of how he intends to achieve net zero by 2050.
Iraq’s pivot towards Asia as Western firms bail Trudeau’s Liberal Party has tabled a bill that
out, citing challenging operating conditions and would require the Canadian government to set
low returns on investment. new targets – and a plan on how to achieve those
With ADNOC dominating recent news flow, targets – every five years between 2030 and 2050.
it was not out of character that the UAE’s state
oil firm made the headlines again this week with If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
the announcement of 24bn barrels of oil found the North American oil and gas sector then please click
across one unconventional and one conventional here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 47 26•November•2020